Public Art Scotland

We've got an article published on the Public Art Scotland web site called "What's the point of short-term? What is the legacy of non-permanence? Here is the url: http://www.publicartscotland.com/reflections/61

In the Loop

Nayan and I were selected to present a paper about Mirrie Lace at the conference, In the Loop, which is at the Shetland Museum and Archives from 1st to 2nd September. Unfortunately Nayan can't travel up for it, so I am on my own. I am very glad that some of the Mirrie Lace knitters will be present, as it wouldn't feel right to be doing the paper without them. You can find out more about the conference on the Southampton University web site: http://www.soton.ac.uk/intheloop/

Mirrie Lace Exhibition Photos by Mark Sinclair

Mark Sinclair took some wonderful photos of the exhibition at Bonhoga Gallery in July. I really like the way that he has captured a relationship between the lace projections and the architecture of the building. These photos have helped me see the work with greater perspective on this relationship and thus our aspirations and intentions for the work in Mareel. I'll try to get them up on our Mirrie Dancers Flickr site. Here's some to whet your appetite!


Mirrie Lace projection at Bonhoga Gallery, from a piece of Shetland Lace knitting by Anne Eunson


Shetland Lace knitting by Angela Irvine


Shetland Lace knitting by Minnie Mouatt

Mirrie Lace Exhibition Opening

The exhibition opened tonight - Friday night. We had a marvelous evening; at least eighty people came (which is lots of people for our small islands) including most of the knitters who are working on the project. Everything went smoothly this week, so of course we had to have a last minute glitch! My attempts to burn the DVD for the slideshow about our Lace Labs to accompany the show kept showing an error and refused to burn! You can imagine the frustration after three more test DVDs didn't work! Finally we got a temporary trial DVD to run, and I am working on getting a better one finished! Emma took these photos at the private view. You can see the projection of Shetland Lace knitted by Joan Manson in this photo.


You can catch a glimpse of Shetland Lace knitted by Christine Smith in this photo.

Mirrie Lace Nearly There

Nayan and I have been working very hard to get all the work together that we've been doing with the knitters over this last year for the opening tomorrow night at Bonhoga Gallery. In this photo you can see Shetland Lace knitted by Gwen Williamson in the process of adjusting the projector position.


We've been at Bonhoga Gallery all week along with Emma, our project assistant, who has been helping with all sorts of things, including cables and painting the patch on this wall. In this photo you can see the Shetland Lace knitted by Helen Robertson before we adjusted the focus.


Chelsea has been supporting us recently at Shetland Arts. She's standing in front of Shetland Lace knitted by Bab Fraser in mohair.


I'm very pleased with the way everything is looking. We have about 90 pieces of knit on display in the stairwell and we have eighteen lace knit projections in the main gallery. Nayan's programming overnight while I try to finish up the slideshow that will contextualise the project and be shown in the stairwell. You can see Nayan standing in Christine Smith's piece of Shetland Lace knitted in an extremely thin, flat sort of copper ribbon which reflects different colours of light.

Mirrie Lace

MirrieLace



3 July - 1 August 2010 Bonhoga Gallery

An exhibition featuring a light installation and experimental Shetland Lace works by twenty one Shetland knitters in collaboration with Nayan Kulkarni and Roxane Permar www.mirriedancers.com

Mirrie Lace

We've been working on the lace projections down in London in Nayan's studio in preparation for our exhibition opening at Bonhoga Gallery on Friday evening, 2nd July. You can see we've been experimenting with scale. This piece was knitted by Bab Fraser in mohair.


It was very difficult to narrow down the choices, but we've chosen eighteen different pieces of lace for the light installation in the exhibition. We've tried to show one piece by each knitter as well as the range of patterns and materials that the knitters have been exploring over the last year.


Each knitted piece is stitched into a template so that it can be mounted in the light projector. We've also met with the Shetland Lace knitters for a Lace Lab at Bonhoga Gallery in the first week of June to discuss final details for the show. Everyone's written something about the work they've done, and the photographer, Ivan Hawick, came and took a portrait of each knitter to display in the show.

Reflecting on the Illuminations

Last week I went down to Longfield again in order to meet up with Jane Ridland. She lives near the site of our last illumination at the Auld Chapel, and she also got involved in the project by helping with site selection and making a film in a Light Lab. We planned to talk about the illumination with a view to possibly transcribing some of our conversation for our final publication. I had the most wonderful time. Jane had such an interesting perspective on the illumination, for she grew up near the Gable End and has thus known it since childhood. I also enjoyed reflecting on the illumination both in its "own right" and in relation to the others that she'd seen. We got into a very interesting conversation about the nature of the movement of light, "earthbound" v "skybound".

Catching Breath

A lot has happened since I last wrote an entry. We celebrated our final illumination, which was at the Auld Chapel, Longfield, in Dunrossness, with a lovely evening at the Sumburgh Hotel. I couldn't get over the difference between the illumination in early March and then in mid-April. For starters, there's no snow now. It's the first time that I'd seen it without snow as I went away in the first week of March when the ground was still white. The other big difference of course is the longer days. You can in this photo by Mark Sinclair taken in April that the sky is very light compared to the darkness in which I had been accustomed to seeing previous illuminations through the winter. The illumination came down finally on l8th April. I went along the last night and filmed some video footage. I had to wait until about 10 pm in order for it to be dark enough. I felt very sad to see the last one go dark. But also relieved as it's been a long, intensive period of work. Now we're beginning to prepare for the exhibition in July at Bonhoga with the lace knitters' work.